Teach Swimming Lessons This Summer and Earn Money

Photo by Nik.

Summer is fast-approaching and there will be many children who need to learn how to swim. Perhaps in your college years you were a licensed life guard. You should update your license/certificate, if needed.

You may want to check your local Park and Recreation to see if you could offer swimming lessons in your town or city. You can also check surrounding towns and/or cities with lakes or pools that are convenient for you to drive to.

Once you get permission from the village board, you can start up to teach swimming lessons this summer and earn money. Or maybe you know a lot of people in your town and you can do small groups of children swimming lessons. (Who knows, maybe teens or adults may want to learn how to swim or swim better and you can teach them, too.)

Once you get enough people that are interested in learning how to swim, if you have different age groups and different areas of swimming expertise, you can form your groups. You may want to offer a “Mommy & Me” swimming lesson class for babies and toddlers to get used to the water and still feel safe with their mother with them. Move up to “Tadpoles” where the children can have their own swimming lesson and so forth.

You may want to have swimming lessons at 9:00 a.m. for one group and 11:00 a.m. for a second group. You will have to check with the Park and Rec or wherever you teach swimming lessons what times you are able to use the lake and/or swimming pool.

For swimming lesson schedules you may want to offer your classes every morning Monday through Friday for two weeks and charge a flat rate. The following two weeks each group can move up to a higher level to keep learning for another two weeks. At the end of the session, make sure you have computer certificates with each person’s name on, the swimming group name and that the person graduated, and finally, your signature as the swimming instructor. This will give the person a feeling of accomplishment and it is a nice touch.

For more information on teaching swimming lessons this summer and earning money, please visit: http://www.preparednessmentor.com/.

Make Money with Woodworking

Photo by Nik.

If you enjoy creating with your hands and working with wood you can have a successful business. You can start woodworking by making different styles of shelves to hang on the wall, eye appealing wooden garbage cans, jewelry boxes and anything small. Once you feel confident you can expand to making tables, chairs, shelving units, hutches and any other wooden household items.

In the summertime you could go to outdoor flea markets and sell your handmade wood products to the public. Most cities have winter indoor flea markets you can book yourself at also. Make sure you have a business card with your phone number and website address on it.

You may want to upgrade your creativity to designing wooden kitchen cabinets. You could charge more by using your own custom design. Also, let customers know that you will upgrade their kitchen cabinets to traditional popular styles, too. You may want to offer complete cabinetry upgrade and/or just the face of the cabinet door.

You can advertise in the small newspapers in your area. You may want to make a visual ad instead of just words about your business. This will capture more potential customer’s eyes. When advertising, you need to make your business stand out ahead of all of the others.

To get started you may want to offer ten percent off of a customer’s bill if he or she refers a friend and the friend uses your service. This will help to keep your business thriving.

Before you get started in your woodworking business you may want to do some updates around your own home or condominium. You can go to free classes at Home Depot. Learn how to do all sorts of home repairs and installations. Take a before and after picture of your projects so you can share them with potential customers as a reference.

For more information please visit: http://www.preparednessmentor.com/ .

Prosper Painting

Photo by Nik.

People are always looking for someone to paint the inside and outside of their home. Now with spring here you may get more and more jobs.

Most people are busy at work and with their children so they do not have the time to paint besides get all of their household chores completed.

Some people may want you to add a texture to their walls in a room. There are textures such as sponge painting, feather painting, and more. Nowadays you can even find paint rollers that create these effects for you. Talk about making your job simple. Discount stores such as Wal-Mart and hardware stores carry these paint rollers. I used a two tone paint roller and the results were fantastic. It was super easy to do and people complimented my walls. They thought I hired someone to do the effect.

Businesses may need to hire you to paint their walls in the evening and/or on the weekends. You may have to bid on a contract against other people who paint.

Advertising
It would be wise to create a website and/or blog online to promote your painting business. Use keywords on your website and/or blog to bring your page rankings higher on search engines. You need to be on page one of Google, Yahoo, etc., to get business through your website online, i.e., you will get more traffic to your website by being on page one.

It would be wise to type in the keyword of where you live so you will get business from people who live in your area.

Add your name to fund raisers in your neighborhood as your name will be posted on signs, brochures, t-shirts, etc.

Of course you can advertise in the newspapers in your area. Once you paint a few houses or businesses word of mouth will spread your name around, too.

For more information on prospering in the current economy, please visit: http://www.preparednessmentor.com/.

Advertise Your Business in Tough Economic Times

Catch More Bees with Advertising
Photo by Nik

If you have your own business you may think during this economic time you should cut back your spending on advertising. This is not the case. You should continue to advertise now if not more. After all, your competitor is advertising to keep his or her business afloat.

Advertise through the newspaper, heavily online and let your employees know that your business is doing fine. Tell your employees that you plan to expand in the future and your reward will be more business for you. How? Your employees will tell their friends and family that your business is going strong. This will help make your employees feel they have a secure job. Also, your employees’ family and friends will spread the word about your business causing more advertising about your business. The hidden benefit is word of mouth advertising is free.

Be sure to keep in close contact with your customers. You especially want to keep in very close contact with your main customers so that other businesses that specialize in the same type of business as you do, do not steal your customers away. Ways you can keep in contact with your customers is to offer specials on products, send out thank you e-mails or letters to your best customers that you appreciate their business. In the thank you e-mails or letters you may want to include a discount off of their next order. Your dedicated customers will appreciate being rewarded for staying loyal to you. How many times have you seen companies offer "new customers only" rewards? For loyal customers this does not seem fair and it can make them actually turn bitter towards a company.

During tough economic times keep your company’s name a household word to help your business thrive. For more information please visit: http://www.preparednessmentor.com/.

Survive the Economy--Walking Dogs

People love their pets. Dogs are a part of many families. Most people think of their dog as a true family member that they love unconditionally. People spend a fortune on their dogs especially with vet bills all of the way down to dog clothing.

One thing many families do is work and the children are off to school for the day. Who is there to entertain the dog? No one. The dog sits bored and waits for their owner(s) to come back home.

Here is where you come in. You can offer to walk neighborhood dogs for money. You can offer to walk a dog for $10.00 per thirty minutes. Just think if you walk three dogs in thirty minutes you have made $30.00. You will have to make sure the three dogs get along well before walking them together. If you have another three dogs to walk for thirty more minutes, you have now increased to $60.00 per day.

If a family has two dogs you may want to offer a deal of thirty minutes for $15.00 for two dogs. You may want to be flexible and walk dogs three times per week for people who cannot afford to pay you every day.

Make up a catchy business name. On your flier show how much family members love their dog and how happy (and healthy) they will be making their dog with a thirty minute walk per day.

Hand out fliers in your town or city paper boxes. (Do not put your fliers in mailboxes as that is a federal offense.) Hang fliers up in your town or city at all local businesses that allow you to. Advertise in your small local newspaper.

People are paying big bucks these days putting their dog in Doggy Daycare. You walking their dog for $10.00 per thirty minutes is a steal. People will feel good knowing their dog is getting a good walk in and some company for a part of their day while they wait for their master to come home. Since no one will be home, you will have to set up with the owner ahead of time to get a house key or have them hide the key for you.

You can enjoy being with man’s best friend, make money and get your daily exercise in. For more information please visit: http://www.preparednessmentor.com/.